Lofty Goal (a McRoll in the REAL World story)
by sammy1026
Summary: Lea and Steve discuss the future of Five-0.


_Mari & Ilna-_ _Because the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet and you bet big, then you take the house._

 _Sandy-Look, we all go way back and uh, I owe you from the thing with the guy in the place and I'll never forget it._

 _REAL Worlders-Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boeski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever._

 _Today's ANs brought to you by Ocean's Eleven_

 _Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

 **Lofty Goal (1/1)**

First thing Friday morning Steve sat at his desk, cup of coffee in hand, reading a text from Gracie.

' _Did Auntie Cath get off to her reserve training ok?'_

He placed his mug on his desk and smiled as he typed his reply. 'She sure did. She should be getting settled in over at the base as we speak.'

' _Do you have your schedule?'_

Steve patted the color coded paper laying in the middle of his desk even though Grace couldn't see him. 'Yes, I do," he typed. 'It was very nice of all of you to come up with it but you don't need to go to so much trouble. I'm definitely gonna miss Auntie Catherine but I'll be ok.'

' _I know.'_

Steve could picture the carefree tilt of Gracie's head.

' _But I think it'll help all of us miss Auntie Cath just a little less if we act like a team and get through it together. Don't you?'_

He certainly couldn't argue with her logic.

'I'm sure it will. But she's gonna be back before you know it.'

' _I've just gotten used to being able to pick up the phone and call or text her anytime, you know? Even though she's still here on the island it feels like she's too far away. Does that sound silly?'_

'Not at all. I see you're scheduled for a visit after work followed by a skype with Joan and then a visit from the Allens. I'm looking forward to all of those.'

' _Great! I'll text you after school and then see you at your house later. Have a good day.'_

'You too.'

Steve had been so engrossed in his texts he didn't notice Lea Kekoa had arrived at headquarters until she was tapping on his office door.

He sprang to his feet and waved her in.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, do we have an appointment I forgot about?"

"No," Lea reassured him. "Honestly, I just needed to get out of the capitol for a few minutes. We had a breakfast meeting to discuss the specifics of the transition and as much as I feel ready for the challenge of being governor it's all still a bit … overwhelming. I needed to clear my head a little so I thought I'd come over here and see if you have some time to talk."

"Sure." Steve indicated the couch and waited for Lea to get settled before taking a seat himself. "What's on your mind?"

"It looks like this fall is going to be a lot different than I originally planned when we first talked about possibly revamping Five-0's mission," Lea started, "so I thought before things get too chaotic we might discuss some of the ideas I have for how the governor's office can make more efficient use of the task force."

Steve nodded. "Catherine is on reserve duty but do you want me to get the others?"

"No." Lea waved him off. "I thought maybe I could run a few ideas passed you and if you approve I can come up with something a little more concrete to present to the entire team."

"Ok." Steve settled back and gave the soon to be governor his full attention, "what are your thoughts?"

Lea extracted a manila folder from her tote bag and passed it to him.

"That's a synopsis of each of the fifty-six cases from the last twelve months where either HPD, the governor's office, or the Hawaii Bureau of Investigation has requested assistance from a federal agency to help solve a crime here on the island."

Steve perused the information.

"As you can see, nineteen of the fifty-six cases were cybercrime." Lea recited the statistics from memory. "Those are the ones highlighted in yellow. While I know both Catherine and Lt. Kelly have very good computer skills I don't think those kinds of cases are where we could utilize you and your team best."

"I think you're right about that," Steve agreed.

"Eight of the cases, the ones highlighted in green, we recommended for federal charges and transferred to the mainland. In each of those cases the feds were able to bring much tougher charges leading to much stiffer sentences."

"Don't wanna step on the toes of the feds if we can help it," Steve smiled.

"Definitely not. Now fifteen of the remaining cases, the ones marked in orange, were drug-related but weren't attached to any other violent crime. These were basically people cooking meth in their basement and we called in the DEA just to make sure everything was cleaned up correctly."

Steve flipped through the pages past all the yellow, green and orange highlighting. He wondered for a minute if Catherine was rubbing off on Lea the way she had apparently rubbed off on the kids and their color coded schedule or if Lea was just the super organized type like Catherine.

"That leaves the purple cases," Lea said and Steve grinned involuntarily. "Fourteen instances where we called in federal help but I believe that employing the special skills of your team we could have solved those without giving up jurisdiction. These people are committing crimes on the island, they should be punished here as well."

The fire in Lea's eyes, showing just how passionate she was about the subject, gave Steve another clue to why Lea and Catherine worked together so well.

"Of those fourteen," Lea continued, "seven had an international component, two were related to organized crime on the mainland, and two involved Hawaiian residents committing crimes both here and on foreign soil. One thing they all had in common … they dealt with violent crime and habitual criminals who needed taken off the streets as soon as possible."

Steve skimmed the details of each case.

"I definitely think we could be of some help on cases like these."

"Excellent!" Lea couldn't conceal her excitement. "I was hoping you'd say that. Each and every member of your team has skills that aren't being used to their fullest. You guys are doing great work but I think there's more we can do. I believe that together we can turn the task force into as elite a squad as exists in law enforcement anywhere in the world."

"Wow." Steve was a little surprised by her words but couldn't help getting caught up in her excitement. "That's a pretty lofty goal."

"Maybe," Lea acknowledged, "but that doesn't mean it's not doable. Each of the five of you is smart, strong, intuitive, able to think on your feet, resourceful and calm under pressure. By keeping the team small we maintain the ability to stay flexible and make adjustments quickly. We take away as much of the red tape as possible and just let you guys do what you're good at … solve crime."

"I like the sound of that," Steve said definitively.

"Perfect," Lea said enthusiastically. "I'll work with my staff to put together some specifics on how this will all work. Of course we don't want to interfere with the excellent work you're doing now. We'll just seek out a way to integrate everything without spreading you too thin."

"What do you need me to do?" Steve asked as he handed Lea back the folder and she returned it to her tote.

"Any chance you have inside track to some secret Navy technology that would allow us to clone Catherine?" Lea grinned.

"Sorry, no," Steve chuckled.

Lea gathered her things and the two of them stood.. "I know I've told you this before but your wife is amazing."

"She certainly is," Steve smiled as he crossed the office and held the door open for Lea.

The two of them made their way to the far side of the bullpen where Lea's security detail was waiting.

"There's a few more of them now," Steve noted, nodding towards the armed officers.

"I guess I'm going to have to get used to that," Lea sighed.

"If there's anything any of us can do to help," Steve offered, "just let us know."

"I will. Thanks."

Lea disappeared through the door and Steve watched as her agents trailed her towards the elevator.

A few years ago he probably wouldn't have been all that receptive to even a small change in the task force's duties, but now he looked forward to the challenge.

He couldn't wait for Catherine to call so he could tell her about Lea's plan.

 **THE END**

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